Feta Cheese-Off
KC Concepcion is pretty.
Richard Gutierrez is pretty.
Greece is pretty.
The Richard Prince bag is pretty.Â
Then the movie has a nervous breakdown, and everything goes to hell. The light romantic comedy suddenly turns into heavy melodrama. Richard makes corny speeches about love that would make greeting cards kill themselves for shame. KC weeps and weeps as if she’s just realized what sort of movie she’s in. Whatever charm the movie had is drowned in mush. The theme song blares incessantly to remind you to buy the ringtone. Philip Salvador is kidnapped by aliens and replaced with a ham and cheese sandwich.Â
Like the last six or seven Star Cinema flicks, For The First Time tells us that the ultimate Filipino romantic fantasy is the embarrassing declaration of passion. It’s not enough that the lover profess eternal love, she or he must do it in a highly public manner. With lots of witnesses and in the most humiliating way possible. Truth, depth, and loyalty are beside the point; what matters is that Everybody Knows It. The logic is, If everybody knows it, then it must be real! It’s an obsession with what other people think, a need for the  approval of strangers. As if everyone were running for office. Apparently the most important thing in Philippine society is the palabas.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
August 29th, 2008 at 10:01
Bring on the wet paperbags, I say.
What about other reviewers? What, I wonder, do they say about this film? Maybe they’re too scared of the mother of the lead actor?
So that’s our zeitgeist.
August 29th, 2008 at 12:56
Why is a supposedly smart, French-speaking, cosmopolitan girl like KC in a movie? With Richard Gutierrez, no less. I can’t believe she went all the way to France for a college degree that she’d waste in showbiz anyway. Not that only dumb people should be in showbiz, but seriously, local entertainment is one of the main causes of stupidity in this country.
August 30th, 2008 at 10:29
If I were a director, I’d like to be Robert Rodriguez to KC Concepcion’s Rose McGowan….turn her into some bloodthirsty avenging Bride-figure…and pregnant too
(a la Juno!!!)
August 30th, 2008 at 18:39
karla0814 is right, what is KC doing in this movie? She was supposedly the anti-Pinoy showbiz girl in a showbiz world – with class, humanitarian ideals, and a French college degree – and now, she weeps and weeps for Richard Gutierrez. I hope she’d stop doing these showbiz antics and make use of her (countless) advantages wisely.
Also, there’s something to be said about Richard’s new shampoo commercial, the one with thought bubbles popping up above his head. It doesn’t surprise me, but it bothers me – so he doesn’t think about anything besides cars, women, and looking athletic? And he earns more than I do?!!
September 2nd, 2008 at 01:46
“Philip Salvador is kidnapped by aliens and replaced with a ham and cheese sandwich.” ===> hahahahahha!!!! Laugh my ‘effin ass off!
I haven’t seen the movie but after this article i just might. The thought of a ham and cheese sandwich replacing Philip Salvador is enticing.